Dilema3
The team! How to decide? First diverge and collect the arguments for and against each option. We are not allowed to simply vote for which we prefer. I'm sure we will have a better suggestion but to have a starting idea how about we just count the number of arguments for and against each proposal and pick the one with the best positive balance. Please edit this with a better idea! +ve points for Raju to talk with Bill Raju cannot delegate the tough conversation that needs to take place with the Green Segment. Raju cannot bypass the front line decision marker of this segment, which is Bill Bernstein. No successful outcome will result without Bill’s commitment. If successful it will be better for Raju to have resolved this himself Raju is the manager of the project and he should manage it, both internally and externally, hence he should talk to Bill. His first conversation showed that for the green segment the priorities have been set long time ago and A5 is not among the top tasks, this is a given and there must be a very clear business reason for that. So Raju needs to manage the situation by getting Bill's support for the following: i) green segment to create an action plan to improve the service quality, Bill is well positioned to assign someone from his segment to do that, e.g. project manager for the green segment, ii) someone quite senior fromGreen segment to be assigned to participate in a meeting wtih A5 to explain the reasons for the quality issues, action plan and address the concerns about the team's competence level and experience. When Raju finds out all the information from the green segment, obtains their committment for a meeting with A5 he can present the plan to Amal and invite her to join them for the meeting by using the argument that her position in the company and long years of expeirence will help show to the customer that we are treating this matter seriously and are taking all necessary steps to improve. He definitely needs to win Bill over to assign a representative for a meeting with A5 "because he has already made a committment on behalf of green segment (resolve issues in a week) without their involvement" point!, it just does not make sense to continue in this mode. -ve points for Raju to talk with Bill I have doubts about whether Raju is the best person to make the argument for the green segement to step up in this project for the long term goals - may it not look like Raju is just focusing on his project success? If Raju is going to push for reallocation of resources, change of priorities for the Green segment, this conversation is not going to work in my opinion. If however he conducts the conversation in different manner, i.e. by finding out the constraints of the green segment, making them commit to a certain action plan and to meeting the customer directly and explaining how they are going to deliver their service, this is a conversation that should produce good results in my opinion. I'll clarify further in my comments on the positive sides of having Raju talk to Bill once again. +ve points for Raju to involve Amal Amal can lend her enthusiasm for the A5 project to the debate and help highlight the bigger picture In my opinion if Amal is to be involved, then it's only to talk to the customer, to give comfort, assurance, understand their needs and priorities better etc., all this by using her enthusiasm. I do not think that Amal should be used to communicate wtih the Green Segment's president, this can and should be done by Raju. Now, coming back to Amal's conversation with Tensai, I think it is worth trying because in my opinion the main problem is Tensai's own lack of confidence in the team that is delivering the project, so Amal's involvement is needed to boost his confidence. During the lunch meeting Tensai was emphasizing that the key problem is the competence level of the green segment's team and according to him it was his team who are not comfortable with the experience of the green segment team. But Tensai is a VP, so if he is reassured, then his subordinates, his team will be more comfortable. Why is Tensai not confident? Because he hears negative comments from his team and he does not have the comfort of discussing things with his friend Thomas as a project manager because Raju took this role. So at this point of time only the involvemnet of a senior customer relations manager from SLB could help, preferably of course wtih the participation from Green segment and to secure this participation Amal could talk to Bill to try to invite him for a meeting with A5 or get him to approve that green segment's project manager for A5 will accompany Amal to meet Tensai. -ve points for Raju to involve Amal Putting Amal in the front at this moment will only result in making the Green Segment to disregard Raju’s authority. If Raju has the formal authority to challenge Bill's authority then presumably he has been given this authority for just this type of situation so he should use it! A5 as the project has its priority, also green team has its own priority. Now the problem comes necause the objective and priority of these two group/project are not consistant.Everybody likes win-win mode.Raju can go to talk Bill directly, explaining green team can be benifted by A5 project also, even it will not happen soon. Also can provide some solutions also, so that Bill can be convienced. In my opinion the negative points of involving Amal is that so far she's seen this project as an opportunity to meet her own objectives (or rather the objectives of the SLB Sales team to win bigger projects) and did not take into account the operational needs of the client or the technical capabilities of the SLB segments involved. So at this point there is no common understanding between client and SLB or between SLB segments as to the priorities of this project (for the customer and for us). As a personality Amal is quite pushy, so there is likely to be a head-to-head confrontation between her and Bill which is not going to be beneficial for the purposes of the project. Amal in my opinion should be involved in mending the relationship wtih the customer, i.e. by meeting Tensai (together wtih Raju and representative of green segment) and explaining SLB's proposed action plan to improve the performance, explain that the personnel involved is capable of delivering the required service quality etc. (since we cannot expect that within the given week personnel will be replaced given clear answer on higher priorities for the green segment)